A
meeting of the Maidstone Deanery Synod took place at St.
Nicholas Church on the 8th
After
the Welcome by the Area Dean four lay members of Synod
representing St. Nicholas Church offered the Opening
Worship with the theme ‘Love for our neighbour’.
After
receiving Apologies for Absence and the approval of the
Minutes of the previous meeting the Area Dean announced
that Mrs. Maureen Bortolozzo had resigned as Treasurer. In
the absence any member of Synod willing to be nominated
for Treasurer it was agreed unanimously that the
Secretary was willing to take on the responsibility until
June 2005.
Appointment
of Deanery Representative to Citizens Advice Bureau
Management Committee
Mrs.
Pauline Garrett has been the Deanery Synod’s
representative on the CAB for the last five to six years.
Her work is much valued by the CAB and she is currently
the Chairman of the Finance Committee. She also
makes it known that she represents the Maidstone Churches.
As Mrs
Garrett has decided not to stand for re-election to the
Deanery Synod but would like to continue representing
Synod on the CAB members were requested to approve the
appointment of Mrs. Garrett for a further three years on
the understanding that she will be the Synod’s
representative despite the fact that she will not be an
elected member of the Synod. This was agreed unanimously
and the Area Dean then thanked Mrs. Garrett for her
excellent service with the CAB on behalf of the Deanery
Synod.
The
Work of the Mothers’ Union in Maidstone Deanery
The Area
Dean then welcomed Mrs. Pat Castle, the Deanery President
of the Mother’s
As part
of the presentation a video presentation was made to
illustrate how a stable family life is most important for
the Community.
The
video showed a number of groups of people, where members
of the Mothers’
Parenting
Groups
These
exist to help nurture children. They seek to
support all types of families including single parents,
both fathers and mothers.
Media
Awareness Groups
These
help parents to manage the use of media such as
television and the Internet. They do not say,
“Do not use”, but seek to raise an awareness of
the problems. There is a media awareness pack
available.
Drug
Awareness Groups
These
exist to help people, both those affected and also
parents and grandparents, to guide their children as they
confront these issues.
Influence
Policy
Due
to the size of the Mother’s
Prison
Programmes
Through
its representatives the Mothers’
Funding
While
the members of the Mothers’
Contact
Centres
These
work alongside Social Services in custody cases where
couples cannot agree on separation terms. It gives
a time for fathers to see their children. The
father comes to the centre to discuss the situation with
a counsellor. Later the mother brings the child and
while the mother is talking to the counsellor the father
has some time with their child. Sometimes, after a
number of visits, an amicable relationship develops and
the visits cease.
The
Future
The
Mothers’
At
the end of the video Mrs. Castle said that the video
shows the type of work that the Mothers’
Locally
there are within the Deanery five Mothers’ Union
groups: St. Nicholas’ Church (59 members), St.
Paul’s (33), All Saints with St. Philip Maidstone (18),
St. Andrew’s (16) and St. Michael’s (8). They
send gifts and cards to the psychiatric hospital and
support the holidays arranged by the Diocese for those in
need. This year there is a week’s holiday being
arranged in August at
They
have also provided a virtual baby to Maplesden Noakes
school.
Mrs.
Pat Dickens then spoke about the Parenting Course she had
run at St. Andrew’s Church. Having completed this
she started to organise a parenting course for parents of
up to five-year-olds at
Instead
of taking this on Pat Dickens turned it round so that the
ladies themselves organised it. The leader of the group
then joined an Alpha course and has since suggested that
there should be a second parenting course. This second
course has been run by Pat Dickens and has a video and a
book as a basis. The aim of the course is to
encourage parents to be more positive in their dealings
with their children, through talking and listening.
As
a result of the courses so far, St. Andrew’s have
seen a greater interest in the Church and the
establishment of a children’s corner.
Deanery
Pastoral Group
The Area
Dean gave a report of the first meeting of the Pastoral
Group formed to monitor the projects in the Deanery
Mission Plan and consider what main projects could be
established.
It was
encouraging to note the emergence of co-operation between
the Churches within the three clusters.
St.
Andrew’s, St. Michael’s and St. Nicholas
The Reverend Jim Perryman reported that St. Andrew’s,
St. Nicholas and the
All
Saints, Loose,
The Reverend Mike McLaughlin reported that they were
being helped in their Children’s work with a team
from St. Luke’s. Music was another area in
which they could receive assistance. They were also
talking about a team to take a family service. The
Reverend Robin Williamson advised that he has taken
Weekday Communion at All Saints’ Church, Loose.
All
Saints with St. Philip
The
1.
A possible Baptism course in early Autumn a Baptism
course
2.
A town wide event for youth in
3.
The Diocesan Disability officer is running a one-day
course at
4.
During Holy Week the Services of the Stations of the
Cross will be held at different
Churches within the Deanery. Three Churches will be
holding these services at
5. At
Parish Report
A Parish report
was presented by the Reverend Tim Wood, who is the NSM at
There are 135 on
the electoral roll of which a high proportion are over 60
years in age.
Three
services are held each Sunday. Holy Communion
services are held at
Attention
will also have to be given to disabled access, which is a
major problem in a building that has steps between its
different rooms.
A number
of groups exist in the Church, from Mothers’
A
Kingsquad has just been started at
Between
the start of January and Easter as many meetings as
possible have been cancelled to give time for
encouragement to each other to use the time for prayer.
Even PCC meetings have been replaced by the Church being
open for people to come and be quiet and seek God’s
guidance for their future ministry. In addition the
PCC and MLT spent a quiet day to Aylesford Priory. Bishop
Stephen will be leading a quiet day in Church on 12th
March for the whole Parish to consider future mission.
One of
the future concerns is regular giving, considering only
16 of the usual congregation are in fulltime employment.
Recently the difficult decision had been made to pay the
£11,000 owing of Parish Share for 2005 from reserve
funds.
In March
Four of
their number have in the last few years completed the
Wholeness and Accreditation Course run by the Diocese and
another person is part way through the accredited lay
ministry course for Pastoral Assistant.
Deanery
Finances
The Secretary presented the Maidstone Deanery unaudited
accounts for the year 2004 and the budget for 2005. After
discussion these were agreed unanimously
Diocesan
Synod
The
synopsis of the last Diocesan Synod had been circulated
to members and Mrs. Elizabeth Bussmann was invited to
expand on the content.
The
meeting that dealt solely with the
Paul
Bayes, the central Church’s Evangelism Officer,
said, “The God of Mission has a Church, not the
Church has a
Following
discussion groups, Steve Hollinghurst from the Church
Army spoke. He gave an illustration which pointed
out the problems that the Church is facing. He said
that there were fishermen living beside a lake who were
concerned that their stock of fish was dwindling as the
water level was falling. The lack of water was due
to a landslide having caused the river to be diverted to
another lake. The fishermen having discovered this
decided that they should fish in the other lake. But
they found that the fish were different and strange.
They used their nets but caught nothing. So they
returned to fishing in their own lake. After some
time they realised that this was no longer viable so they
decided they would have to go to the new lake and find
different ways of fishing so that they could catch these
strange fish. So we need to be thinking outside the
box, that is the Church, and sharing with the community.
While the parochial system is not equipped to cater for
the new situation, we would be idiots if we try and
reinvent the wheel, so we need to think creatively to
connect the old and new: the historic mainstream
and the innovators of today.
Bishop
Stephen made a number of short points: Rejoice;
hold out; take risks, including dropping some of
the things we are doing for we are too busy; travel
light; enjoy what we are doing; we should not
let people in our Parishes be filled with guilt and
fatigue.
Mission
Links
Mrs. Jean
Sweetman, the Deanery Mission Links representative,
reported on a meeting in
At the
meeting Canon Stephen Lyon of Partners in World Mission
spoke about links with other parts of the Anglican
community. He spoke of the various forms of contact
by regular letter, visits and e-mail. He stressed
that it is important that the link is owned by the
Parishes involved. Also links are not just about
money but also to share what is important on both sides.
He encouraged Parishes to draw on the expertise of the
She also
heard about the fact that the
She was
also encouraged to hear that St. Paul’s link
partners were coming to visit them and St Andrew’s
are linked with the former vicar of St. Margaret’s,
Barming, who is now in the Philippines.
She also
offered to assist parishes in establishing contacts.
Area
Dean’s Notices
The Area
Dean advised members of the dates of the following
meetings: -
Monday 9th
May – Archdeacon’s Visitation – St.
Nicholas’ Church, Poplar Grove, Allington at
Tuesday
17th May – Bishops’ Roadshow –
She then
referred to the former quiz trophy that was competed for
in the Sutton Deanery. As this seems to have ended
up in the North Downs Deanery, St. Paul’s Church
were willing to donate a new trophy for a quiz
competition open to the Churches in the Maidstone Deanery.
Churches would be free to enter as many teams as they
wished. If members welcome this suggestion then
The Area
Dean then referred to the fact that this was the final
meeting of the triennium. For some members this
will be their final meeting and she wanted to thank them
for their fellowship and service. She then drew
attention to the fact that the Secretary feels that it
has come to the time when he should not stand for the
Synod again and encouraged members to consider who maybe
suitable to fill the post. The Secretary is willing
to advise people about the duties that the job involves.
Also she reminded people of the need of a Treasurer.
As the
Deanery was now becoming a key unit in
The
meeting concluded with The Grace.